Skip to content

ACCA Applied Skills · Performance Management · Big data and data analytics

A retail chain captures millions of till transactions, website click streams and social media comments each day. The management accountant notes that the social media comments do not fit into rows and columns in a relational database. Which characteristic of big data does this MOST directly illustrate?

The answer is variety. Social media comments are unstructured text that cannot be held in rows and columns, so they differ in format from structured till data. Variety concerns the range of data types and formats, whereas volume concerns size and velocity concerns speed.

  1. AVariety, because the data arrives in different formats including unstructured textCorrect
  2. BVelocity, because the data is generated at high speed
  3. CVolume, because the quantity of data is very large
  4. DVeracity, because the data may be inaccurate

Explanation

Data that does not fit a fixed row and column structure, such as free-text comments, is unstructured. Differences in form and format between data sources are the 'variety' characteristic. Volume relates to quantity and velocity to speed of generation, neither of which is the issue described.

Did you get it right without looking?

One question tells you little. A timed set on Big data and data analytics shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.

Practise Big data and data analyticsFree diagnostic mock

More Big data and data analytics questions